Hanna Tetteh, 20 Others Sued By Odekro For Absenteeism

Odekro, an advocacy platform has sued Foreign Affairs Minister and MP for the Awutu Senya West constituency, Hanna Tetteh and 20 other MPs for consistently staying away from Parliament proceedings.

They include Fiifi Kwetey, the Minister of Agrictulture, Sports Minister, Maj. (Rtd) Mustapha Ahmed, amongst other MPs who have been sued for consistently absenting themselves from Parliament.

Odekro, the advocacy platform seeking to promote transparency and accountability which sued the MPs had earlier petitioned the Speaker of Parliament in a letter dated, December 2, 2015 complaining about the conduct of some 125 MPs.

The group said they felt slighted by the Speaker of Parliament’s failure to acknowledge receipt of their letter and said they had to resort to the court because:

“the Speaker of Parliament failed to acknowledge receipt of our letter and he also failed to honour our request to declare the seats of the defaulting MPs vacant. Consequently, we have instructed our lawyers to file a suit at the High Court asking the court to declare the seats of the 21 worst-offending MPs vacant.”

According to Odekro, 125 out of the 275 MPs are in breach of Article 97(1) (c) of the Constitution which states that an MP shall vacate his or her seat if:

“He is absent, without the permission in writing of the Speaker and he is unable to offer a reasonable explanation to the Parliamentary Committee on Privileges from fifteen sittings of a meeting of Parliament during any period that Parliament has been summoned to meet and continues to meet.”

Below is the full list of the MPs sued by Odekro

Evans Paul Aidoo (Sefwi-Wiawso) – 188 Sitting

Hannah Serwaah Tetteh ( Awutu-Senya West) – 176 Sittings

Eric Opoku ( Asunafo South) – 165 Sittings

Akwasi Opong-Fosu ( Amenfi East) – 155 Sittings

(Dr) Dominic Akuritinga Ayine ( Bolgatanga East) – 150 Sittings

(Mrs) Queenstar Pokua Sawyerr,( Agona East ) – 135 Sittings

Joseph Nii Laryea Afotey Agbo (Kpone-Katamanso) – 132 Sittings

Mark Woyongo ( Navrongo Central ) – 126 Sittings

Clement Kofi Humado ( Anlo) – 124 Sittings

Maj. (Rtd) Mustapha Ahmed ( Ayawaso North) – 118 Sittings

Fiifi Fiavi Franklin Kwetey (Ketu South) – 110 Sittings

Alhaji Bashir Fuseini Alhassan (Sagnarigu) – 102 Sittings

James Agalga ( Builsa North) – 97 Sittings

Abdul-Rashid Hassan Pelpuo (Wa Central)- 94 Sittings

Aquinas Tawiah Quansah (Mfantseman West) – 92 Sittings

Ken Ohene Agyapong ( Assin Central) – 89 Sittings

Collins Dauda ( Asutifi South) – 89 Sittings

Ahmed Arthur (Okaikwei South) – 84 Sittings

Grace Addo ( Manso Nkwanta) – 83 Sittings

Joseph Boakye Adu Danquah (Abuakwa North) – 76 Sittings

Edwin Nii Lantey Vanderpuye – 75 Sittings

The advocacy platform further stated that, “by this action, Odekro intends to establish a legal precedent with which to sue the remaining defaulting MPs to vacate their seats.”